A transflective type liquid crystal display panel has both a transmissive mode and a reflective mode. In a relatively dark environment, the transmissive mode is mainly used, that is, the backlight of the transflective type liquid crystal display transmits the liquid crystal display panel, to display images; and in a relatively bright environment, for example, in the sunshine, the reflective mode is mainly used, that is, mirrors within the liquid crystal display panel are used to reflect external light, which is used as a light source to display images. Therefore, the transflective type liquid crystal display is applicable to environments having different light intensities, and especially has an excellent outdoor visibility. In addition, the backlight does not require a high brightness and has an advantage of low power consumption, thus it is widely used in products such as vehicle-mounted display, high-end mobile phone, digital camera, handheld computer, and aviation display meters.
The prior transflective type liquid crystal display panel, as illustrated in FIG. 1, sequentially comprises, from the top to the bottom, an upper polarizer 11, a first substrate 12, a first insulating layer 13, a liquid crystal layer 14, a pixel electrode layer 15, a second insulating layer 16, a second substrate 17 and a lower polarizer 18. The upper polarizer 11, the first substrate 12 and the first insulating layer 13 constitute an upper substrate S, and the pixel electrode layer 15, the second insulating layer 16, the second substrate 17 and the lower polarizer 18 constitute a lower substrate X. The transmissive axis of the upper polarizer 11 is perpendicular to the transmissive axis of the lower polarizer 18.
The liquid crystal display panel is divided into a plurality of sub-pixels, wherein each sub-pixel is divided into a transmissive region T and a reflective region R, and in the transmissive region T: a first common electrode layer 19 is disposed between the second insulating layer 16 and the second substrate 17 in the lower substrate X; in the reflective region R: a second common electrode layer 101 is disposed on the first insulating layer 13 in the upper substrate S; and a reflective electrode layer 102 is provided on the second insulating layer 16 in the lower substrate X. The projections of the pixel electrodes on the pixel electrode layer 15 in the transmissive region T alternate with and are parallel to the projections of the common electrodes on the first common electrode layer 19 on the second substrate 17, and such projections have the same interval therebetween.
The initial orientation of the liquid crystal molecules in the transmissive region T is parallel to the transmissive axis of the lower polarizer 18, and the initial orientation of the liquid crystal molecules in the reflective region R forms an angle of 45 degrees with the transmissive axis of the lower polarizer 18.
During manufacturing the above transflective type display panel, the part corresponding to the transmissive region T on the first insulating layer 13 of the upper substrate S is not disposed with the second common electrode layer 101, while the part corresponding to the reflective region T on the first insulating layer 13 is disposed with the second common electrode layer 101, which results in that the transmissive region T and the reflective region R of the upper substrate S have different structures, such that an additional mask plate is needed during manufacturing the upper substrate S to make the above structure. Therefore, there exists relatively much difficulty in the making process during manufacturing the upper substrate S.